At 02:35 AM 1/30/99 +0000, Tom wrote:

/snip

>> At 02:50 AM 1/22/99 +0000, Tom <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >One thing to be *REALLY* careful about is with DB maintenance utilities
>> >such as DBGENERAL. If the group you're running in is on a different
>> >volume set than the group containing the dataset you're expanding, the
>> >dataset gets trashed.

/snip

>I didn't say that DBGENERAL caused the problem. We have DBGENERAL on our
>system but it turns out that Growthpower's DB Expander calls something
>called DBCSI.DISK.SYS to expand the DB. Growthpower runs in PUB and the
>databses are in DATA. I saw the problem in DBCSI and said that,
>generally, one should be careful of one's environment.


Over the years a number of application vendors have provided their own
tools to assist in performing database mgmt functions.  However, their
main business focus is the business application itself and not
DB administration.  These simple but useful tools which they provide
can not compare with the level of sophistication, amount of resources
and level of testing conducted by vendors whose primary focus is
database tools.  Furthermore, it is not likely that these application
vendors will keep these tools current with the latest features of
IMAGE/SQL unless the tool simply uses IMAGE itself to perform a task,
such as copying a set to expand its capacity.

If using an application vendor supplied database capacity tool is
what the end-user is accustom to, then they are in for a rude awakening
when the have a chance to use one of the DB-centric tools that are
available, whether it is DBGeneral (<plug> we would hope :) </end-plug>,
Adager, Flexibase/IMAGE or DBChangePlus.  And while there also are some
good contributions on the CSL for managing database capacity, they aren't
nearly as efficient as the tools which cost $.

While 'hunches' about how various software tools/products might respond
under certain conditions is a useful skill in evaluating or analyzing
potential risk, it is important that one verify their assumptions before
implicating a product by name.  This would apply to most everything,
including editors, compilers, security tools, and so forth.

Its unfortunately Mr. Thacker did not contact us after the application
vendor's tool caused problems, for apparently he had the appropriate
tool to correct the database problem that was introduced.... :-)


/jf
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                        Monday, February 1st

          Today in 1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court met for the 1st
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